February 2012 - Grey Wagtail has returned!

Saturday 4th: The Grey Wagtail is a female, and after a months' absence, came back to our garden last Thursday. This must be the same bird that was here last year. Thursday 2nd was the day that Melanie first saw the Wagtail since last December 19th. Where has it been all this time and why has it come back to our garden? Not that we are complaining, we are "chuffed-to-bits" that she is back. Mel was positively over the moon when she rang me at work to tell me the good news.

We have taken note of the fact that when she last spent time in our garden; on 28/11/11, 30/11/11, 2/12/11, 4/12/11, 12/12/11, 14/12/11 and 19/12/11, the weather was very cold and frosty. The Wagtail was not seen until 2/2/12 which coincided with a period of mild weather conditions. Then last Thursday, she was spotted in the garden by Mel. Now she has been here for three consecutive days and the weather has turned bitterly cold again, and this afternoon, a couple of inches of snow has fallen and settled.

Last Thursday, the Wagtail spent a little time in the garden but yesterday and today she had spent much of the day in and around the back garden. In fact, today, she didn't leave the garden until 4:30pm! The Wagtail has even taken to eating live meal worms and will come to the back door to get a snack. The Wren has taken to shadowing the Grey Wagtail around the pond to pick at anything edible that the Wagtail disregards! The Grey Wagtail has had to endure the occasional mobbing by the male Blackbird or a Starling when it gs a meal worm, but this harassment hasn't bothered the bird to any degree. So we suspect that as long as we have cold weather the Grey Wagtail will remain in our garden, eating meal worms and other bird food.